With the loss of any privacy today online, cyber stalking for prospecting is easier. I know it sounds sinister, but the best way to sell is to know your prospect. Know if they NEED your service. Know if they can afford your service. Know if your service can actually benefit them. How to do that? Cyber-Stalking.

First, set up a Google alert with the CEO's name (and another for the corporate name). When you see PR from the company or about them, print it out and mail it to him - or share it with your socila network -- or email him with a short note of congratulations.

As Gitomer says, Give Value First! Maybe that value is information about their biggest competitor or industry reports. There's a lot to be said about BI (business intelligience).

Find out the CEO's sweet spot; chocolate, cigar, golf, something small that is related to this and send it to them.

Follow the company on LinkedIn and twitter. Know what they are up to. It may coincide with your services. For example, if they are opening a new office or hiring or even laying off. In Hosted VoIP, these are sales triggers.

If they just went Cloud, bandwidth, mobility, security and backup become important. Again sales triggers.

But it shouldn't be all about you, it should be about the Prospect. The more you know about them -- and their vertical - the more value you bring to the table.

If you see that they are hiring and there is a webinar about hiring practices today (or whatever), you could invite the prospect to join you at the event.

On LinkedIn, you can see their bio and shared connections. The company page may have info and news. There are many ways to skin a cat today -- you need to be working smarter and creatively. What worked before may not necessarily work now.

If you always get voicemail and your email goes unanswered, first off, be more creative with your messages! Is it about YOU or THEM? Next, try a different form of contact - a postal invite to a networking event; a CD or thumb-drive in the mail; flowers or balloons; ice cream or pizza for the office; or ping them on twitter; see them at an industry event; message them on LinkedIn.

BTW, on LinkedIn, don't use the canned invite message unless you know that person (F2F or face-to-face). Add a personal note about why you want to connect. It gets better results.

With the loss of any privacy today online, cyber stalking for prospecting is easier. I know it sounds sinister, but the best way to sell is to know your prospect. Know if they NEED your service. Know if they can afford your service. Know if your service can actually benefit them. How to do that? Cyber-Stalking.

First, set up a Google alert with the CEO's name (and another for the corporate name). When you see PR from the company or about them, print it out and mail it to him - or share it with your socila network -- or email him with a short note of congratulations.

As Gitomer says, Give Value First! Maybe that value is information about their biggest competitor or industry reports. There's a lot to be said about BI (business intelligience).

Find out the CEO's sweet spot; chocolate, cigar, golf, something small that is related to this and send it to them.

Follow the company on LinkedIn and twitter. Know what they are up to. It may coincide with your services. For example, if they are opening a new office or hiring or even laying off. In Hosted VoIP, these are sales triggers.

If they just went Cloud, bandwidth, mobility, security and backup become important. Again sales triggers.

But it shouldn't be all about you, it should be about the Prospect. The more you know about them -- and their vertical - the more value you bring to the table.

If you see that they are hiring and there is a webinar about hiring practices today (or whatever), you could invite the prospect to join you at the event.

On LinkedIn, you can see their bio and shared connections. The company page may have info and news. There are many ways to skin a cat today -- you need to be working smarter and creatively. What worked before may not necessarily work now.

If you always get voicemail and your email goes unanswered, first off, be more creative with your messages! Is it about YOU or THEM? Next, try a different form of contact - a postal invite to a networking event; a CD or thumb-drive in the mail; flowers or balloons; ice cream or pizza for the office; or ping them on twitter; see them at an industry event; message them on LinkedIn.

BTW, on LinkedIn, don't use the canned invite message unless you know that person (F2F or face-to-face). Add a personal note about why you want to connect. It gets better results.